


Lost in my enemy's eyes

by Anonymous



Series: philinda AUs <3 [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - College/University, BAMF Melinda May, F/M, Fanboy Phil Coulson, Fluff, Mutual Pining, POV Melinda May, Phil Coulson & Melinda May Friendship, Philinda AU Challenge, Teen Romance, rivals au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: [ RIVALS AU ]Melinda May was a legacy. The daughter of one of the most formidable CIA agents in the world, Lian May, Melinda was revered and watched closely before she was even out of diapers. The entire intelligence community kept an eye on her family. When Melinda’s parents divorced, they knew. When Melinda got kicked out of her middle school for starting a fight against a boy who was harassing her, they knew. And when it was time for her to graduate high school, they knew- and so did another, more hidden organization.
Relationships: Maria Hill & Melinda May, Phil Coulson/Melinda May
Series: philinda AUs <3 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859632
Comments: 21
Kudos: 53
Collections: AOS AU August 2020, Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sanctuaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctuaria/gifts).



> For Sanctuaria, super awesome beta who helped psych me up because my confidence in this fic was not great lol<3
> 
> \----
> 
> crappy ass title lmao
> 
> so i'm going to TRY to post an au every day
> 
> if i fail im sorry i have theatre camp so god knows if ill even remember that i have an ao3 account

Melinda May was a legacy. The daughter of one of the most formidable CIA agents in the world, Lian May, Melinda was revered and watched closely before she was even out of diapers. The entire intelligence community kept an eye on her family. When Melinda’s parents divorced, they knew. When Melinda got kicked out of her middle school for starting a fight against a boy who was harassing her, they knew. And when it was time for her to graduate high school, they knew- and so did another, more hidden organization. 

Before she could barely set foot off of the stage with a fresh diploma in hand, a tall black man with an eyepatch approached her.

“Nick Fury.” She acknowledged the Director of the SHIELD with a respectful nod, having learned from her mother exactly who this man was and how deadly he could be. While he was mostly invisible and unremarkable to everybody else, because of her mother’s high status within the intelligence community Melinda knew that SHIELD existed. It was an organization that dealt with the paranormal and unexplainable, covering it up from most civilians. She was a little bit confused as to what he was doing there.

“Melinda May. You know what I want to speak to you about,” he said, motioning with his chin for her to talk privately with him in the hallway outside of the auditorium. 

She didn’t know what he wanted, though she had a suspicion. “Yes, sir.” She followed him through the double doors and into the chilly hallway, tightening her robe around her.

“I’m guessing you want to follow in your mother’s footsteps,” Fury rumbled, studying her with a scrutinizing gaze. 

Melinda stood up a little taller. “Yes, sir.”

“Alright, then. How would you like to join SHIELD?”

Melinda blinked. “Um, what?”

“I know you’ve been groomed to join the Central Intelligence Agency like your mother, but I have the feeling your skills could be useful elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere…”

“SHIELD needs someone like you; willing to break the rules to do what’s right.”

She narrowed her eyes. _She wasn’t actually considering this, was she?_ “My mother will murder me.”

“You listen to your mother?”

Melinda exhaled sharply. She’d been taught from a young age that the CIA was her future, because it was her mother’s future. Maybe… maybe she wanted her own future.

“You have a minute to decide.”

“That- that’s _really_ not a lot of time-”

“Yes or no.”

Melinda looked down at the diploma in her hands. She’d known since she was young that she was to be in the CIA, but now with the option of SHIELD… Now she could choose. And also piss her mother off at the same time.

“You get to travel the world once you’re out of the Academy. Assuming you don’t drop out. SHIELD academy is much harder than anything the CIA could dream of.”

Melinda met his eyes, knowing he was baiting her with a challenge, and yet falling for it completely aware. She groaned internally, and hoped to God she wouldn’t regret this.

“Yes, sir.”

“Great. Melinda, I think you’ll do great with us. You’re expected at the Operations Academy in August.”

“Wait- wh- where is it?” She asked, but he’d already turned away from her and began walking away. “Director Fury?” She called, but he turned the corner and disappeared. “Ugh.” She stood there, the fact that she’d made a large and life-altering decision not yet hitting her.

“My fucking god, my mother will _kill_ me.”

…

Three very tense months later, Melinda found herself in front of the Academy campus, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She pursed her lips as she looked around. She’d always known she was short, but being around so many tall, strong-armed potential agents made her self-conscious for a second before she remembered that nobody intimidated her, no matter their physique. Her mother had taught her to take down men twice her size, anyway. She smirked as she realized, not cockily but genuinely, that she could easily best most of the recruits in the group.

“Melinda- May?” The older agent that had been (unsuccessfully) trying to herd the group of rookies and give them a tour of the Academy called out, stumbling slightly as he read Melinda’s last name. Melinda looked up and gave a little wave. The agent smiled and said, “You’ll be in a room with Hill.”

As the agent continued pairing the other rookies, a brunette walked up to Melinda and grinned. “I’m Maria Hill. Please just call me Maria, though. I’m already sick of being called Hill and I’ve been here an hour.”

“I’m Melinda.” Mel shook hands with the other girl. They grinned at each other, the mischievous spark they saw mirrored in each other's eyes already telling them what kind of year it was going to be.

…

Five weeks into classes, Melinda found an adversary. Well, she found another one. Truth be told, Maria, Victoria, and Isabelle all practically matched her in skill and tactics, but she would still regularly come out on top during most operation-based training. This was the first time she found an adversary from Communications Academy- and he was a threat.

Early in the year, it was explained that the top student in each graduating year for Operations and Communications would then meet with Nick Fury, who would decide personally their placements. Usually it meant he would become a Supervising Officer for the better of the two, and the other would go train under the head of a department. Both placements were good, but having the Director as your Supervising Officer was the highest possible position you could be in coming out of the Academy- And Melinda was determined to get that spot.

She’d heard of Phil Coulson, even before their classes had been combined. At the beginning, it was just Operations students grouped together, and the news of Coulson’s quick rise to be the most advanced Communications student had spread throughout all three Academies. The opposite was true for Melinda, too- though she suspected it wasn’t as revered because that was what was expected. She was Melinda _May_ , a legacy- of _course_ she’d be the best of the best.

When the two classes finally met for a joint sparring class, Melinda and Coulson finally met face to face.

And, truth be told, she hated him. 

“Legacy, huh?” he’d asked as they stood outside the gym, waiting for their joint class to begin. 

“Yeah. What about it?” she asked, glaring straight into his bright blue eyes. 

He shrugged, a little smile playing on his face that ignited a flame inside her. “Wonder if we’ll both still be at the top by the time graduation rolls around,” he mused. 

She smirked. “I know _I’ll_ be.”

“We’ll see.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’re a legacy- of course you’re on top right now, you came in already as the best of the best because of your mother. But soon, the people that actually work hard will surpass you, and you’ll wash out.”

Melinda recoiled at the venom in Coulson’s tone, before gritting her teeth. “Fine. Let’s be partners today in sparring- see who ‘actually works hard’.”

He shrugged unconcernedly, then followed her into the auditorium.

(She kicked his ass. He had the decency to give a surprised and slightly guilty smile and apologize and say he was wrong, which she appreciated, before slamming him down to the ground three more times.)

…

The next four months had Melinda almost constantly busy with schoolwork and practice, though she had the time to sic a couple of pranks on some of the ruder rookies in Operations (Nobody ever found out who had pranked them except for Maria, who caught Melinda sneaking back into their second-story room at two in the morning with empty cans of whipped cream in a duffle bag.)

For the most part, she ended up with Coulson whenever they had classes together. In academics, they fought to get the best scores on exams and labs. In more tactical or fighting-oriented classes they were usually pitted against each other, her moving quickly and silently like silk and him like a cunning ox, fighting his way firmly to get her pinned to the ground. For the most part, there was never a clear advantage of one over the other. Honestly, Melinda wasn’t sure she could keep this up for another four years. The time she’d spent warring against him in order to be the most advanced student was already depleting her energy- Thank god for fall break.

Except she needed to fight her way through the exams and be the top scorer first- something she wasn’t entirely confident she could do, especially since she and Coulson had been tying at almost every turn, their only advantages over the other were his tactical skills and her combat skills.

“Only one more day till testing and then we’re busting out of here,” Maria exclaimed as she stuffed her clothes back in her locker. “So close, Mel.”

“Yeah, we are,” Melinda mumbled as she scrunched her face up at her locker, feeling sick.

“Mel? What- oh, fuck,” Maria said softly, coming to peek over May’s shoulder at the wall of sticky notes that lined the inside of her locker. Every single one of the yellow pieces of paper had something horrible written on them. ‘Chink’ was repeated multiple times, ‘small and worthless’ caught her eye, and many notes about how she didn’t deserve the attention she was getting from the teachers and that the only reason she was doing so well was because of bias because of her mother. Melinda felt her stomach churn. 

“They’re just jealous that somebody as tiny as you can kick their ass,” Maria reasoned, but Melinda didn’t hear her. She slammed her locker door closed and stalked out of the locker room, ignoring the calls of ‘Mel, we have class! _Mel!’_ resonating behind her.

Blinking back tears, Melinda kept her head down as she ran past the throngs of students, barely reacting as she bumped into Coulson, who caught her arm and stopped her with a worried look. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, but she pulled her arm away from him roughly. 

“Were they from you, you- you _bastard_!” Melinda cried, flushing as the students around them turned their heads. She was embarrassed; she prided herself on keeping her cool in stressful and yet here she was freaking out because of a couple mean notes- possible from Phil. It wasn’t completely impossible that they were from him; he could be trying to get under her skin so that she’d falter during testing.

“Wha- wait, what was from me?” Phil stared at her with a bewildered expression. She bit her lip, realizing that the surprise on his face was probably genuine, and turned and fled the hallways. 

Blindly pushing her way into the SHIELD library, she made her way behind some shelves in the back of the room and plopped down onto the ground, curling her legs up into her arms. _What are you doing, Melinda? Letting him- whoever it was- get under your skin? That’s weak,_ she snarled at herself.

She sat there, berating herself, barely noticing as somebody peeked their head around the bookshelf and blinked at her. “Hey, you- you okay?” Coulson asked, his voice unusually gentle.

Melinda wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket before glaring at him. “Why’d you follow me?” she growled, feeling a twinge of guilt at lashing out at him.

“Um, sorry. I can leave if you want, I just- Maria told me what happened, and that sucks, I know, and-”

“Do you know?”

“Do I… what?”

“Do you know what it’s like to be constantly underestimated and yet at the same time expected to be the best? Do you know what it’s like to have assumptions made about you before people even meet you? Do you know what it’s like to live under somebody’s shadow?” She grew quieter and quieter as she spoke, wiping her nose with a sniff before trailing off.

“No. No, and I’m sorry.” He sighed heavily, Melinda casting a suspicious glance up at him before shifting just slightly into a more open position, a message that he could stay and yet he was still skating on thin ice.

Coulson slipped his hands into his pockets. “Listen, I think I know who did it. We- Or you, if you want- can report them.”

“Who?” Melinda asked softly.

“Garrett. Sitwell, too. He’s my roommate, I heard him discussing something like the sticky notes last night, and I didn’t say anything. I’m sorry.”

Melinda nodded. Both Garrett and Sitwell were assholes that had treated her like she was nothing when she’d first arrived at the academy, and they still did. It was no surprise that they were the culprits of the cruel bullying.

“You know, when we first met… I said that you were only good because of your mom. I- that’s not…” He sighed and fiddled with his zipper, seeming to rethink what he was about to say.

(Melinda thought for a second how Coulson liked to ramble a lot when he was nervous, and not the cocky, confident mask he put up during classes and in front of other people.)

“I thought you were like Garrett,” Coulson said finally. Melinda looked up at him in surprise. He shrugged sheepishly. “Yeah. I know you’re nothing like him, but… I dunno. All I’d really heard from people was that your mom was a legend, and that you were the best fighter in the class. For a month before we met I had to deal with legacies that were the likes of Garrett, that assumed that because their parents were big league that they deserved the best coming in, without working for it. I grew up pretty far from that; my dad died when I was young and I had a single, working mom taking care of me and my sister for most of my life. We had to fight for most stuff, and I worked my ass off to get noticed by Fury. So when I met Garrett, I kinda, stupidly, assumed you’d be the same.”

Melinda bit her lip in thought, then frowned. “It doesn’t mean that what you said was okay. It was pretty uncalled for.”

Coulson nodded. “Yeah, and I’m really sorry. I was being stupid. It wasn’t okay.”

She narrowed her eyes at him for a second before scooting over and patting the ground next to her, a clear invitation that she wanted him to sit next to her. After a brief moment of hesitation, he obliged, plopping down pretty clunkily for somebody that was so good at stealth and combat.

“Aren’t you gonna miss class?” she asked. “You’re gonna lose points on the exam.”

He shrugged with a little smile. “So are you. It’s not fair if I leave you alone here by yourself just so I can get ahead in the class.”

The corners of Melinda’s mouth twitched up, but she hid her smile in her knees. After a few moments of quiet silence, she spoke up, “I’m sorry about your dad. My parents got divorced when I was really little, so I- I kinda get it.”

Phil gave her a wry smile. “Yeah. Sorry about that. That can’t have been easy.”

Melinda shrugged, picking at the carpet. “I don’t usually get so upset from other people’s opinions,” she said, feeling the need to explain. “I just… I’m stressed, you know? Calculus is seriously getting on my nerves. I think it was just a lot that kinda… boiled over all at once and I freaked out.”

“I’m pretty good at Calculus.” For a second, as Coulson paused, Melinda thought he was going to hold it over her head and tensed in expectation, but then he continued, “I can tutor you if you want.”

She stared at him. “Really?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, th- thanks, Coulson.”

“But we’d probably have to do it in secret. If we are, dare I say it, being friends, we’ve got a reputation to uphold as rivals, you know.”

She giggled and leaned her head back against the bookshelf. “Yeah. Of course.”

(They decided to skip exams, then retook them instead of lunch together; Maria giving Melinda a suggestive look before getting tickled mercilessly.)

…

“Captain America? No way,” Melinda balked as Phil nodded, smiling as he pulled out his phone. 

“Way. I’ve got his trading cards, they’re from the fifties,” he said, his innocent pride infectious as Melinda leaned over his shoulder to look at the pictures of the faded, yet meticulously taken care of cards. The music she had blaring in her bunk faded to background noise as she was met with another one of his blinding grins. She looked back down at her phone to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Wow. I knew you were a dork, Coulson, but that big of one?” She giggled. When the tips of his ears turned pink she bumped his shoulder empathetically. “Hey, I have My Little Pony socks. There’s literally no reason for you to be embarrassed around me,” she said as she wiggled her pink-and-purple-clad toes.

“Hah, yeah, you know what? You’re _right_ . _You’re_ the childish one here.”

Melinda gaped at him before throwing one of her pillows at his face, shrinking when she received a pillow assault in return. They traded blows with the soft and fluffy weapons before Melinda slipped off her bed, gasping as she hit the ground before breaking out into another fit of giggles.

Phil gave her his hand to help her stand up, and as she took it, the warmth of his hand sent a thrill through her body. Once she was standing, she found herself face to face with him, close enough she could feel his warm breath brushing lightly on her forehead, his bright blue eyes drawing her to take a step closer.

Maria gagged loudly and dramatically from her desk on the opposite side of the room, breaking the moment. “You two are disgusting. Just kiss already, geez.”

Melinda pulled away hastily from Phil, flushing as she shot her roommate a glare, who just sent back a knowing wink before returning to watch some romance movie on her laptop.

Phil, in all his clueless glory, started stuttering. “It- it’s not like that, I swear, we’re just _friends_.” 

_Friends._

Melinda nodded weakly in false agreement, but inside she struggled to breathe. She knew already that he didn’t like her in that way- of course not, she was his competition. She was in his way. It was odd enough already that they were friends, why would he want to date her? 

“Aw, shoot, it’s uh, time to leave. Gotta go; fun tutoring session this time, Melinda, even though we didn’t get much done,” he apologized. Melinda nodded, forcing a bright smile onto her face. She wanted to respond that not once during any of their weekly calculus tutoring sessions did she learn a single thing from him; usually satisfied to sit and listen to his voice contentedly. (Later, she’d always have to cram youtube videos to find out what she’d missed. She truly did need the help in the class.)

After Phil left, Melinda sank onto her bed and groaned. Maria swiveled around in her chair and took one of her airpods out, flashing her roommate a sympathetic look. 

“I got _friendzoned_ ,” Melinda muttered, flopping onto her back and staring sadly at the olive-green ceiling.

“Yeah, you did,” Maria sighed. “But you know- that can change. It’s only freshman year, Mels. You’ve got three more years to figure that stuff out.”

“It’ll never happen,” Melinda moaned despairingly. “I mean, he’s popular, and stuff, and also- we’re supposed to be competing to be Fury’s rookie, remember? I’m, like, the last person he would want to date- I’m the enemy.”

“Uh, sure. ‘Enemy’, as in, ‘person that you always get into pillow fights with and share smoothies with’? That kind of enemy?”

Melinda lifted her head off her sheets to shoot Maria a withering glare, who just smiled innocently in response. “Fine. We’re friends. But he doesn’t want to be anything more than that. I’m competition; anything that would spark between us would never last because we’re constantly pitted against each other.”

Maria hummed. “Pity. I, on the other hand, have found a possible suitor for myself.”

Melinda perked up in interest. “Oh? Who?”

“Garrett.”

Melinda narrowed her eyes at the ridiculous answer and dropped her head back onto her covers. “Fuck you.”

Maria snorted and rolled her eyes. “Love ya, Mel.” 

“Yeah, yeah.”


	2. Chapter 2

Sophomore year was hard. It was pretty fucking hard, actually.

Melinda had Maria, but that was mostly it. Most of the possible friends in her class thought she was too intimidating or snobby to hang out with; never giving the chance to get to know her.

She and Coulson had a tentative relationship, still. They were friends, but not in public. Their tutoring sessions turned into weekly hangouts with Maria in her and Mel’s bunk. Their competition during class, though, had them acting as if they didn’t know each other. Melinda didn’t know how Phil felt about the situation, but her heart ached when they forced glares at each other. She wasn’t even entirely sure the reason they were keeping their friendship on the down low, but it was hard. She wanted to get to know him better, yet they kept their distance, not letting their friendship get in the way of their goal to be Fury’s rookie. 

February third (she remembered the date), Melinda got a call at two in the morning, chilling her core. She hung up and stumbled to the restroom to throw up, barely noticing Maria pulling her hair out of her face. After shooing her roommate to go to classes and leave her alone, Melinda sat numbly on her bed and stared at the wall, waiting for an update, for reassurance, for…

Some point during the day, her window slid open and Phil slid easily into her room. “Hey. You weren’t at classes today, I was worried,” he said gently. “Climbed in through the window so Price wouldn’t catch me walking to your room.”

She shrugged weakly, holding up the phone she was clutching tightly as an explanation.

“Do you… Do you need anything?” He asked tentatively, taking a few steps closer. His button up was a little rumpled from climbing to her window, but she didn’t have the capacity to care like she would’ve any other day.

“My mother was shot,” she answered. “I need her to be okay.”

He exhaled sharply through his nose. “Omigod, Mel…”

Melinda barely noticed that he’d called her Mel for the first time. “Yeah.” Her voice cracked. “She’s strong, and- and it’s not life threatening, I don’t think, but they wouldn’t tell me  _ anything  _ because the mission was classified. I don’t even know where she is, if she’s awake, where she was shot…” She trailed off into a sob.

He moved around her bed and sat down next to her, hesitating before putting a comforting arm over her shoulder. “It’ll be okay. She- she’s Lian May, okay? She’ll be fine.”

She nodded, her face crumbling as she sank into his embrace, letting loose her cries of despair. She couldn’t lose her mother; she just couldn’t. Her mom was a pillar, a stubborn and sometimes ridiculous pillar, but there for Melinda nonetheless.

“She’ll be fine,” Coulson repeated, rubbing her shoulder lightly with his thumb. 

Maybe she could have more than one pillar. Maybe…

“She’ll be fine.”

And she believed him.

(He was right.)

…

Finally, they started hanging out more, though still constantly staying far away from the line that it seemed neither of them had the courage to cross (this pissed off Maria to no end). 

At some point, hiding their friendship became like a game. Phil’s favorite route to Melinda and Maria’s room was their window, and when Sitwell was out, Melinda entered Phil’s room the same way. Sometimes they’d play up their competition just for fun, exchanging some playful and teasing smack talk before sparring practices. 

Eventually, Melinda almost forgot that at the end of senior year, one of them would be chosen to be Fury’s rookie, and one of them… would not. She was scared that would break something in their friendship forever, but avoided bringing it up. Instead they just grew closer as the months flew by, visiting each other’s homes during break.

April of senior year, placement letters were administered to every graduating cadet in the Academies.

“Studying under… Holy fuck.” Melinda blanched at the paper in her hand. Maria popped up next to her, interested.

“What? What’d you get? Fury?”

“No, I got- I’m working as a  _ specialist _ ,” Melinda answered, stunned. Honestly, she wasn’t nearly as upset as she’d expected.

Maria’s jaw dropped. “Hold on. Nobody gets a Specialist position straight outta the Academy; it’s unheard of!”

Melinda grinned and shrugged, happy yet with a pool of tension still sitting heavily in her gut. “Yeah, it is.”

“So happy for you, Mel. What about Phil?”

Melinda shrugged. “That’s gotta mean that he got the position we- he wanted.”

As if on cue, the familiar sound of their window being slid open caught their attention as Phil dropped onto the ground and stood up. “Mel, I, uh, got the… Fury,” he mumbled, staring apologetically at Melinda. They gazed into each other’s eyes in silence before breaking eye contact awkwardly when a loud cough sounded from behind Melinda.

“I think I should… leave you guys alone.” Maria raised her hands in mock surrender before grinning wickedly and leaving the room hastily. “Congrats, Phil!” she called out as she left.

“Mel-”

“I’m not upset,” She interrupted, rereading the letter. “I’m a specialist, I won’t be working with Fury and I’m… not upset about that. Congrats, Phil.”

He furrowed his brows at her, bewildered. “Wait, what? You’ve been fighting for this since… day one.”

“I don’t… think I was fighting for that,” Melinda answered honestly. “Eventually, the competition with you was just fun for me, you know? I don’t think I’ve been fighting for that position for awhile.”

Phil sat down next to her on the comforter, sporting a clueless expression. “I thought that’s what you wanted?”

“That’s what was expected of me.” Melinda sighed. “Right from the beginning, you said it- I’m a legacy. But things weren’t easier for me, they were… harder, at least in some respects. Everybody expected me to be Fury’s rookie, so that’s the only path I really saw for myself. I was living in my mother’s shadow. But honestly…” She looked up at him, smiling. “As a specialist I can travel the world, be my own person… save the world,” she added, nudging him. 

He grinned uncertainly. “You sure, Mel?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure,” she answered, beaming up at him. Getting all of her thoughts… well,  _ most _ of them off of her chest felt great.“There- there’s this pressure to do good, you know?”

“Yeah. But, Melinda… know that I would never put you under your mother’s shadow. Since the day we met, you’ve proved that you’re your own person.” He sighed happily. “Wow. So we both got what we wanted, huh?” he asked, though there was something there… an undertone to his words.

Melinda felt as the pressure in her stomach lifted and was replaced by butterflies. She was going to do something either really stupid or really smart- If this failed, then she could just ask to be assigned in Antarctica or something. She finally had nothing to lose.

“Um, Phil?”

“Yeah?” He turned to her, smiling. She met his electric blue eyes, and suddenly she had no impulse control and her lips were on his. Her stomach dropped as he tensed, then relaxed and pushed back against her. A shiver of elation ran up her body.

Reluctantly, she pulled away for a breath. “That, um- took a while,” she murmured, mesmerized by his blinding smile. 

“Yeah, sorry,” he shrugged. “Honestly, I wanted to start something, but I was scared it would be ruined when placements came out.”

She stared at him, then burst out laughing, trailing off into a self deprecating groan. “Yeah, same here.” She rolled her eyes. “I guess it worked out, then.”

“Guess it did.”

Melinda smiled and leaned in closer so her lips were hovering above his, and kissed him. They pushed at each other; another, deeper connection forming between them. She pulled away and smiled up at him and his brilliantly blue eyes.

“I love you, Melinda Qiaolian May,” he said softly, trailing her jaw with his thumb.

“I love you, you big dork, even though you can’t pronounce my middle name.”

“Hey!”

She giggled and pulled him back into another kiss, cementing what they both already knew had been true for years- They belonged to each other.

“OMIGOD,  _ FINALLY _ !!”

“ _ Maria!” _

**Author's Note:**

> comments make me v happy :D


End file.
